In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/675,839 filed Mar. 7, 1991, and drawn to a surface mount connector, there is disclosed an extremely small electrical connector for interconnecting the circuits of circuit boards and the like. The connector there disclosed is capable of being rendered in an extremely miniature size, for example, for circuit traces having a pitch on the order of 0.5 mm and is adapted for surface mounting to boards which in turn carry components interconnected by the connector. Such connectors are particularly adapted for use with small electronic devices such as cameras, video cameras, and other relatively compact and densely packaged electronic products. At least in one application wherein component carrying boards are interconnected in parallel, the connector cannot be physically held as it is soldered to the surface of the board and plugged into a connector half soldered to the surface of an opposing board. The connection must be mated "blind," meaning that an installer cannot see the connector or hold the connector, but must rely upon the connector itself to facilitate mating, unmating being less of a problem. In addition to the difficulty of mating, the small, relatively delicate portions of the plastic and metal parts of a connector make damage from stubbing or mismating a definite problem.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide an improvement for miniature electrical connectors which require blind mating. It is a further object to provide a miniature blind mating connector for interconnecting circuits of the type utilized on the surfaces of circuit boards, having extremely close center-to-center conductive trace spacings. It is a still further object to provide a surface mounted connector having features facilitating blind mating and alignment with circuit traces for surface mount soldering to circuit boards and the like.
It is a final object to provide a method of making spring contacts that minimizes stress and better controls contact force relative to deflection.